Chapter-18

"Mr. Gupta, introduce yourself, this is Navya. You just met her now, right?" Arriving at his house, Mohit introduced Navya to Mr. Gupta, a housekeeper who was in his fifties already.

Mr. Gupta smiled friendly then shook hand with Navya. "Good afternoon, Navya mam. How are you, Mohit sir? So now you got the time to bring your wife to home!" Mr. Gupta protested against Mohit in a mocking tone.

Mohit chuckled, then gave the car keys to Mr. Gupta. "Here, instead of nagging, it would be better to wash my car." He said to Mr. Gupta.

Mr. Gupta pursed his lips. "Huuu... on purpose right? Let me outside of the house, so that you can be free to do some romance with Navya mam inside." He said with winking one eye.

Navya was surprised to hear Mr. Gupta's words, but Mohit immediately responded with a laugh and patted the thin man's shoulder. She just realized, it turns out that's how the two men were joking. "They must be very familiar." Navya thought in her mind.

"Mr. Gupta has been working here for a very long time, hasn't he, Mohit?" Navya asked curiously when she and Mohit were already in the house.

"No, it's only been about seven years. When I was three years in London, Mr. Gupta took care of my house, before it was still not renovated. But I really trust him. You could say Mr. Gupta is like my family, because I was alone since my parents died," replied Mohit.

For some reason Navya thought of Mohit's parents and her grandparents who used to be friends. "Umm..., where is your parents' grave? Is it close to the graves of Grandfather and Grandmother?" Navya asked him.

Mohit turned to look at her, then nodded. "Yes, it's in a mountain area. Why? You want to make a pilgrimage there?" Mohit asked her.

"Yes, since living in Delhi, I've never even visited my Grandparents grave. Would you take me there?" asked Navya hopefully.

Mohit smiled. "Yes, ofcourse. But is it okay for you to ride a motorbike? The problem is that the car is being washed. The road to the grave is narrow, rocky. It's better to use a motorbike." Mohit continued.

Navya was even surprised. "Do you have a motorbike?" She asked surprisingly.

"Got it. You've never been seen my stash, huh?" Mohit said and walked to a door beside the living room. It turned out that the door led to the garage.

Navya was curious, "What kind of motorbike did Mohit call his 'stash'?" Navya thought in her mind. As soon as she enter the garage, she saw a dark blue dirt bike, it's not new, but looks well-maintained.

"Seriously, you ride this?" Navya stifled a smile.

"Why? Are you embarrassed?" Mohit even asked again.

"No... but I think that you looks serious. It turns out that you likes motorcycle collections guard." Navya said to him.

"Don't get me wrong. I love adventures," said Mohit, patting his motorbike proudly.

Navya chuckled. That is true. She remembered the time at the beach, Mohit seemed to really enjoy the challenge of riding ATVs and playing sandboarding.

"Then let's go, Mohit!" Navya said in confidence.

Navya did not understand what had gotten into her mind to the point that she was willing to ride the dirt bike with Mohit. In fact, from the first in Jabalpur, her dad always forbade her to ride a motorbike of any kind, even if she was on a ride. It's danger,not safe, her father said.

After putting on their helmets, the two of them got on the motorbike. "Hold me, Navya," Mohit ordered.

When the motorbike slid and Navya immediately hugged Mohit's waist, she immediately removed all of her dad's prohibitions away from her mind.

Although the sound of the motorbike sounded noisy and the speed of the motorbike was quite fast, she felt safe with Mohit.

The graveyard they were going to was about half an hour's drive north of Mohit's house. The road is narrow, rather steep, and rocky, as Mohit said, because it is on a slope area of mountains far from people's homes. Arriving at the entrance to the graveyard, Navya and Mohit got off the motorbike, continuing on foot.

The graves of Navya's Grandpa and Grandmother turned out to be close to the grave of Mohit's mom and dad's grave, only separated by two other graves. Arriving in front of the grave, they cleared the weeds that grew around the grave, but there were not many of them. The four graves also look relatively clean.

"You must come here often, huh? Navya guessed looking at the cleanness.

"Quite often. Once in a month I will try." Mohit continued.

Navya's heart felt warm. Not only friendly with her father, Mohit also respects her grandparents even after they are gone. She realised that she had always been too indifferent to Mohit, who she only considered as her private teacher.

"Thank you, Mohit for taking care of my Grandparents grave. You will definitely say as it is close to the grave of your parents so you did this. But I feel that you had done many things for my family, even to the point of sacrificing your personal life with this fake marriage." Navya said to Mohit in one go.

Mohit looked surprised at her words. He stared at Navya's face for a long time. Navya looked down at the grave, not daring to return Mohit's gaze because her own heart was bitter.

"Navya, I never felt like I've sacrificed anything. I'm still living my life as usual. The only difference is that I have you to take care of now," said Mohit gently.

They both fell into silence. Mohit closed his eyes for a long time, probably praying. While in Navya's mind many things flashed, memories of her grandparents, too longing for her dad and Rishabh. But what bothered her the most were Mohit's words just now. "Care? So, that's how Mohit felt all this time, being the guardian of a girl like me?" Navya thought in her mind.

They don't know how long they were there, suddenly the weather changed drastically. Black clouds moved quickly to cover the sky and the wind was blowing harder and harder.

Mohit hastily took Navya's arm in his arm. "Let's go home. It's going to rain again soon." Mohit said to her.

"Why so sudden, Mohit?" asked Navya in surprise as she followed Mohit back to where the motorbike was parked.

"In an area near a mountain like this, the weather can change suddenly." Mohit explained her the reason.

Mohit opened the motorcycle seat, took out a set of raincoats, and handed it to Navya. "Here, you just use it, Navya" He said to Navya.

"Well, what about you?" Navya asked him.

"I only brought a set of raincoats, I thought it would not rain. It's okay for me, I'm already wearing a jacket." Mohit pointed to the denim jacket he had been wearing since home.

"Ah... I don't want to. You are the one who use it, you'll drive the motorbike it will help you" Navya insisted.

They even got into an argument over the raincoat, while it started to drizzle. Mohit took off his coat and draped it over Navya's shoulders.

"Just wear it, Navya. You'll get sick if it rains heavily." Mohit said and started his motorbike and waited for Navya to get on the passenger seat.

Navya's stubbornness appeared again. She even deliberately took off the coat that Mohit was wearing earlier and folded it. "To be fair, we both don't need to wear coats," said Navya, then sat behind Mohit.

Mohit was silent for a moment, but could only shrug. Because the rain was getting heavier, Mohit finally quickly rode his motorbike to leave the graveyard area.

The heavy rain soaked all their clothes and bodies in an instant. Navya shivered because of wearing only a long-sleeved shirt, but she remained determined. She just held Mohit's coat in her hands.

Approaching the residential area, Mohit slowed down the motorbike. "Let's take shelter first, Navya!" Mohit half shouted to match the pouring rain.

"Uh... no need, Mohit. Just go home," Navya demanded.

"Are you sure?" Mohit asked her.

"Yes, Mohit. My clothes are also all wet like this." Navya replied her.

"In that case, let's just go back to your house, so we can change clothes immediately," said Mohit and drove towards Navya's house.

After about fifteen minutes into their drive to south, the weather suddenly changed again. The rain stopped, the sky began to clear, and the sun was shining again. Navya was dumbfounded because they were the only two in the whole road who looked soaked all the way home.